London - Chris Head’s mother Suzi believed she was doing her best for her sports-mad young son by smothering him in factor 50 sunscreen every time he went out to play.
But it meant that the football and cricket-loving youngster had very little exposure to direct sunlight – our main source of vitamin D – despite spending most of his days in the garden.
Now Head has been told her six-year-old son has got rickets, the bone-softening disease caused by a lack of vitamin D, with the high factor sun cream thought to be to blame.
The disease, a scourge of Victorian Britain, was virtually eradicated after the Second World War but is returning in children due partly to lack of outdoor play and to diets low in oily fish, eggs, liver and other foods rich in vitamin D.
However some experts also blame the over-zealous application of sun cream by parents anxious about skin cancer. Vitamin D – known as the sunshine vitamin – is made when the body is exposed to sunlight. Chris first developed joint pain when he was three and would wake up during the night screaming in pain.
“It would take me hours to settle him and I was constantly having to give him Calpol and ibuprofen,” said Head, 43, of Lutterworth, Leicestershire.
“I would be back and forth to the doctors every couple of months for about two years trying to get a diagnosis, but I was always told that it was probably growing pains.”
It was only when Chris started school that he was referred to a paediatrician who diagnosed serious vitamin D deficiency and rickets.
Head, a mother of two who had to give up her work as a teacher due to ill health, said: “I was really shocked when we got the diagnosis. Chris has a balanced diet and plays outside all the time.
“The doctor told us that the sun was the main source of vitamin D but that using a higher factor sunscreen could stop your body from generating it.
“After we got home I did some research about rickets and found that Chris had every symptom. Since then I’ve met other moms with children suffering from a similar thing. You’re told that the sun is dangerous and you think that by buying the highest factor sunscreen you’re protecting your family, when that isn’t necessarily the case.
“Now I tend to leave the sunscreen unless Chris is going to be in strong sun all day.
“I make sure that he goes outside for short bursts of time early in the day or in the evening so he gets his vitamin D without burning.”
Chris is being treated with vitamin D drops and it is hoped that this will eventually remove all symptoms of rickets. But he is still experiencing pain in his bones, so his mother fears that some of the damage may be permanent.
Leading paediatric surgeon Professor Nick Clarke said: “Practically the only available source of vitamin D is from sunshine.
“Most children don’t like oily fish and that is practically the only food which contains high levels of it. If you’re protecting against the sun by using a factor 50 sunscreen you will not generate any vitamin D.
“There is a growing problem because children are outside much less than they used to be. They are texting each other instead of playing outside and parents often drive them to and from school. They are outdoors less than ever before.
“This can have important consequences for adult life and we are now linking vitamin D deficiency to multiple sclerosis.” - Daily Mail